Volvo Engine Hour Counter Issue

[Avjo]

I just put in a contract on a boat based on a listing that recorded a certain number of engine hours. The boat has very low hours and even if it had 2-3X the number of hours from the listing, it really wouldn't matter. When the seller countered, I was told that there is some issue with the hour counter that caused it to keep counting when the engine was off, but the display was powered up. No one seems to be able to even give me an estimate of what the counter reads, which leads me to believe that it is showing a ridiculous number. I will obviously get that number, but just thinking in advance about what to do next.

Some questions:

1. Does the whole story sound plausible?

2. How concerned should I be? Obviously, the seller didn't put this in the listing -- probably not surprising, but obviously they seem to fear it will affect the deal because it has now been mentioned, but the vagueness is still disconcerting.

3. Assuming I still want to go forward with this, how should I protect myself? Obviously, I will get a survey, but the youthfulness of the boat had me of the mindset that I would not have a separate engine survey. I guess that should now be on the table. Anything else?

4. What are the perceptions on how this effects resale? I know to some extent, this depends on what we are seeing, but if it has the hours the seller says, the engine is a baby. Assume the counter shows it as mature. By the time I sell it, the engine could be mature, but the counter shows it as ragged out. Obviously a compression test sorts this out, but in the meantime, have I scared away a lot of buyers?

Thanks for the thoughts.

Avjo

 

[pvb]

There's absolutely no way you can rely on an hours counter. It could show anything, it might have been disconnected for long periods, it might have been replaced. Any serious potential buyer will assess the engine on its condition, and you should do the same.

 

[tawhiri]

I think the counting circuity is on the circuit board behind the tacho dial, and is still counting. The cheaper replacement option has all the circuitry onboard the new LCD display. If you can get hold of an old working Volvo Penta LCD display and connect the ribbon cable of the LCD to the original tacho meter it should display the current number of hours.

 

[nigelmercier]

If this is an original VP/VDO hour counter, there is no way it will count without tachometer pulses. On inspecting the boat you will see if the counter is counting all the time, so take it from there.

 

[jwilson]

There's absolutely no way you can rely on an hours counter. It could show anything, it might have been disconnected for long periods, it might have been replaced. Any serious potential buyer will assess the engine on its condition, and you should do the same.

+1
If a five year old car odometer shows 30,000 miles, but the seats are sagging and the pedal rubbers are worn out, you smell a rodent.

Similarly with boats, with the added complication that almost ALL Volvo and Yanmar engine hour counters show blank after a few years. If it looks well maintained, starts from cold easily, little smoke, and runs well, it's probably fine whether it has 40, 400 or 4000 hours running time.

 

[Monique]

Volvo hour meters are not reliable. I replaced one on the old boat at less than 800 hours engine time. Insane Volvo prices as expected. Plan about GBP 400

The smarter way to go (wish I'd thought about it...) is to fit a mechanical unit directly to the engine (not very practical) or install a new electric unit on the engine itself which powers through the engine start switch.

Get a good engine survey done; that should tell you all you want to know.

GL

 

[youen]

My volvo hours meter stop working at 800 h,knowing the price of a new Volvo one,I prefered to mount a VDO one pluged to the starter switch,from time to time the old one works for some hours and the horameter shows an amount of engine hours same as the addition 800h+ vdo hours.So even if the horameter seems not to work the hours are still printed in the circuit board memory

 

[Avjo]

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up doing a separate engine survey. Looks like the issue was legit and the yard actually admitted that they ran up most of the hours by not turning the control unit off.